Molly got ripped by a small shrimp!

dahcmed

When I checked on my aquarium, I saw 1 shrimp feasting on my molly it's tail ripped off, probably the reason why it wasn't able to swim away anymore. Is this the way the shrimp attacks it?

Not sure what the shrimp is called, but when I bought it, the lfs said it's what they feed to the arowana's. It looks like the amano (transparent body). I bought a dozen for dirt cheap price. Anyways, I removed most of them already, can't remove the others as they are hiding in the plants. Could they really be the culprit?

I have a 15g, heavily planted, 4 (minus 1) orange molly (2M, 2F), 4 silver molly (2M, 2F). And about a dozen babies.

bettababy

It is possible, depending on the type of shrimp it turns out to be, can you get us a picture? Ghost shrimp are peaceful, but it if turns out to be a whisker shrimp.... they can be quite aggressive, and grow quite large.
Until we know for sure what it is, there's not much anyone can do to help with this one. I'm afraid a picture is about the only way we'd be able to tell.

starcollector

Is it possible that your molly died of other causes and your shrimp was just cleaning up the leftovers? Did you actually see your shrimp attack the fishes?

dahcmed

Yes. It's possible the shrimp was just cleaning up the dead molly. But I got worried, cause my bro-in-law have the same exact shrimp and we saw it attack one of his "weakening" swordtails. And since there was nothing not normal happening the night before, even the babies are healthy, the shrimps were my only suspect.

Lupin

I would say your shrimp either attacked a weakening molly or was just clearing away the carcass.
Healthy ones have time to escape any attacks.:)

Sorry to hear about your fish, Dahcmed.

bettababy

Again, I question the species of shrimp. I have seen whisker shrimp in a 40 breeder tank completely wipe out a population of full grown neons... they simply plucked them right out of the water, hunting them down like a predator. I had a female whisker shrimp that was 4 inches long after 1 1/2 yrs... and nasty as snot. I had to give her a tank of her own because she kept killing my smaller fish.
A ghost shrimp is not known for aggressive behavior, and if that is truly the species, I would agree with the others. Until I know the species, I still have to wonder...